Islamic Archaeology | Chapter 5: Arabic Calligraphy & Unity

One of the most important arts that the noble muṣḥaf stimulated is the perfection of Arabic calligraphy (Figs. 124–139).

Arabic calligraphy is regarded as one of the three fundamental roots from which the Islamic arts branched out, in addition to the mosque and the noble muṣḥaf. At the same time it remained one of the most important factors that achieved their unity despite the diversity of periods and regions.¹

The Influence of the Rulings of Islam on the Islamic Arts

Contrary to what some claim—that the Islamic arts are far removed from the spirit of Islam and its teachings²—these arts, in their emergence and their characteristics, drew inspiration from the principles of Islam and its rulings.

On the one hand it is observed that Islamic art arose from the desire for excellence and perfection, and in that field it secured the palm of precedence over other arts. The truth is that this desire for excellence and perfection is derived from Islam itself: the Prophet (may God bless him and grant him peace) said: “God loves that when one of you does a work he should perfect it.”

It is well known that excess in perfection and excellence leads by its very nature to refinement and embellishment, which explains to us the high degree of elegance and ornament that the Islamic arts attained (Figs. 228 and 229).

On the other hand, Islamic art was influenced by another motive, which is the desire to beautify life and to enjoy its adornment. This desire is also inspired by the principles of Islam. God Almighty said: “O children of Adam, take your adornment at every mosque, and eat and drink, but be not excessive. Indeed, He likes not those who commit excess. Say: Who has forbidden the adornment of God which He has produced for His servants and the good things of provision? Say: They are for those who believe during the worldly life [but] exclusively for them on the Day of Resurrection. Thus do We detail the verses for a people who know.”¹

In addition to that, God—glorified and exalted be He—mentioned that He has adorned the sky with the constellations: “And We have certainly placed great stars in the heaven and have beautified it for the observers.”²

The tendency of the Islamic arts towards the ornamental character is one of the effects of the creed of Islam, and consequently of their distance from the imitation of nature and from realistic representation, so that any matching of God’s creation—whether in images of living beings or in images of plants—is avoided. They excelled, as no other art has excelled, in the field of geometric ornament, until they reached a rank that almost no other art approaches. The Muslims developed geometric ornament on well-studied foundations and invented types of these ornaments that no one before them had preceded them in. There is no doubt that one of the factors of their superiority in this field was their excellence in mathematics in general, in addition to their musical sense, which they acquired by virtue of their poetic nature³ (Figs. 228 and 229).

In addition to that, the teachings of Islam had an important effect on the art of painting. As a result of Islam’s prohibition of the embodiment of religious beliefs, painting, after Islam, was removed from religion in Islamic society and did not enter the mosques, where it was replaced by Arabic writing.¹ It was not used in the embellishment of copies of the Qur’an, where it was limited to geometric ornaments and stylised vegetal elements, and it was not employed in the illustration of books of religion, nor was it taken as a means of guidance and admonition.

Thus painting was almost confined to the illustration of scientific books and some narrative and historical books (Figs. 114–123).

However, the removal of painting from religion prepared for it a special advantage in the other non-religious arts: it made it secular in character, so that it came to be regarded as one of the arts of this world, not as one of the works of the Hereafter. It was therefore closer than any other art to the idea of pure art, just as the life of this world, with its natural scenes and human events, became its field.

Painting in Islamic society was also distinguished from the beginning by an inclination towards the depiction of pure nature that does not contain images of living beings, as is the case in the mosaics of the Dome of the Rock (Fig. 5) and the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus. Perhaps the recourse to these natural scenes goes back to the fact that some of the Muslim scholars found no objection to the depiction of that which has no spirit, in addition to the fact that the drawing of these scenes was a guidance for the eyes to the beauty of nature, to which Islam called for contemplation, and to the contemplation of the power of God who has made everything most excellent in its creation.

Thus the extent of the influence of Arabism and Islam on the emergence of the arts of Islamic architecture and ornament becomes clear.

The Styles of Islamic Antiquities

It has already been indicated that Islamic art is distinguished by a unity that dominates its production, however numerous the regions, however diverse the races, and however successive the periods. This artistic unity goes back essentially to the unity of the creed that spread in this world, since art drew inspiration from the principles of Islam and was subject to its teachings in most cases.

Arabism also played its principal role in the realisation of this artistic unity. One of its most important manifestations was Arabic writing, which the artists took as material for the ornament of their objets d’art despite the diversity of their kinds, so that Arabic writing became a fundamental ornamental element in artistic production among the various Islamic peoples (Figs. 1, 5, 24, 32, 33, 44, 48–50, 106, 124–139, 148–157, 160, 162–164, 168, 170, 175–195, 205, 206, 211, 213, 214, 218, 219, 225, 226 and 230).

Art, however, by its very nature carries the seeds of renewal and difference, so that it is impossible to find two productions that are identical unless one of them is an original and the other a work of imitation. Consequently Islamic antiquities divided into many styles and methods, even though the character of Arabism and Islam continued to unite them all.

The principal artistic styles have been conventionally attributed to the main Islamic states: Umayyad, Abbasid, Saljuq, Mongol, Safavid, Fatimid, Andalusian, Indian, Maghribi, Turkish Ottoman and others. Secondary styles also branched off from these general styles according to differences of times or places or the personalities of the artists.

Art arose among the various Islamic peoples on the basis of their previous arts. However, the single rule that these nascent arts enjoyed provided an opportunity for intermingling, just as the teachings of Islam, its spirit and its symbols unified them, in addition to the prevailing Arab character, as we have already stated.

Even now we have not found confirmed artistic remains from the time of the Prophet (may God bless him and grant him peace) and the Rightly Guided Caliphs. Only a few examples from that period have reached us; they are represented in the noble Prophetic Sanctuary in Medina the Radiant (Figs. 2 and 3), in the Mosque of Basra, the Mosque of Kufa, and the Mosque of ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ in al-Fusṭāṭ (Figs. 15 and 211). Even though all of these remains underwent much alteration and change that caused them to lose their original features.¹

Nevertheless, the artistic products that have reached us from the Umayyad period (41–132 AH / 661–750 AD) (Figs. 5, 17, 94, 95, 112, 124, 149, 173, 184 and 210) indicate that Islamic art in that period took on a distinctive character, and that Islam produced an art that is commensurate with its value and the greatness of its political and military victories.

It becomes clear from the Islamic antiquities and objets d’art that have reached us from this period that Islamic art arose in all the regions of the Islamic state on the basis of the arts that preceded it.

In Iran it arose on the basis of Sasanian art (Fig. 173); in Syria (Figs. 4, 5, 17, 86, 94, 95 and 112) on Byzantine and Hellenistic art; in Egypt (Figs. 149 and 210) on Coptic and Byzantine art, Hellenistic art and Pharaonic art. It also drew upon the artistic traditions in the other regions subject to Islam, which the single rule provided with an opportunity for intermingling. At the same time it walked in step with the teachings of the new religion, its spirit, its symbols and the Arab character. This new Islamic art was conventionally called the Umayyad style, and this style (the Umayyad) is regarded as an international style, since it spread in the many regions that were subject to the Umayyad caliph. Its diffusion was helped by the craftsmen of different nationalities, who often collaborated in a single production, as was the case in the building of the noble Prophetic Mosque in the time of al-Walīd ibn ʿAbd al-Malik.

After the Abbasids seized the caliphate in 132 AH / 750 AD,¹ they transferred the centre of their rule to Iraq, where they founded the city of Baghdad in 145 AH / 762 AD near the borders of Iran and took it as the capital of their state (Fig. 9). They may have done this in order to be close to the Persians on whom they had relied in establishing their rule, or in order to distance their capital from the reach of the Byzantine fleet in the Mediterranean. As a result of that the Iranian-Sasanian influence increased.

Regional Foundations of Early Islamic Art

Region	Pre-Islamic Foundations	Resulting Style & Influences
Iran	Sasanian art	Iranian-Sasanian artistic traditions and stylistic integration
Syria	Byzantine and Hellenistic art	Umayyad architectural and mosaic developments
Egypt	Coptic, Byzantine, Hellenistic, and Pharaonic art	Synthesis of regional heritage within Islamic decorative arts
Iraq (Abbasid Era)	Mesopotamian and Persian traditions	Increased Iranian-Sasanian influence centered in Baghdad

Module Key Takeaways

Spiritual Foundations: Islamic art and Arabic calligraphy derived their drive for perfection, geometric abstraction, and non-representational ornamentation directly from Islamic teachings.
Secularization of Painting: Religious prohibitions led painting away from mosques and sacred texts into secular, scientific, and historical manuscripts.
Synthesis of Regional Styles: Unified under Islam and Arabism, artistic production assimilated earlier Sasanian, Byzantine, Hellenistic, and Coptic traditions into distinct dynastic styles.

Horemheb